Broom and scraper



April 24, 1956 E. SPROSTON 2,742,658

BROOM AND SCRAPER Filed NOV. 18, 1953 United States Patent BROOMSCRAPEREdmund Sproston; Hamilton, Ontario, Canada Application-November?18,1953,'Serial No. 392,912

' 3 Claims." cl; =-1'I 1) This invention relates to improvements infloor sweeping utensils which are known as brush brooms or push brooms,and-:more particularly it relates to scraperscomhinediwith-tsuch brooms.

.Gonventionally these brooms consist of an". elongate head to whichsweeping bristles are. attached, and a pole extendingfrom the head,roughly at 45-", used asra handle. Gommonly the handle is screwedintoaconforming'socket in the head, and usually there are two of thesesockets approximately at right angles to each other so that the handlemay be transferred from one to the other when the bristles show signs.of swept-back deformation from use. The two sockets merge and form anopening in the bottom of the brush head, and there is thus formed aV-shaped passage open at two points in the upper face of the head and ata median point in the bottom face.

Brush brooms with associated scrapers are known in the art of floorcleaning utensils, but in all such known combinations the scrapers arein fixed relation to the brushes, and not extensible. They are thereforelocated close to the brush.

The scrapers are used principally for the removal of sticky substanceswhich resist sweeping until loosened from the floor. A good'example ofsuch substances is discarded chewing gum, particularly when it has beentrampled upon, and so pressed to the floor that it adheres. Suchscrapers are brought into operative position by reversing the brush;that is to say, the brush or broom head is turned upside down, thebristles upstanding. On clear floors it does not matter if the scraperis located close to the broom head, but on floors which have fixedobstacles such as theatre seating, a scraper located close to the broomhead is of little use, since it is not long enough to go past the seatlegs; that is to say, the elongate'broom head is blocked by the seatlegs and therefore the scraper is often stopped short of the substancewhich it is intended to clear from the floor.

On the other hand, if the scraper were to be extended sulficiently farahead of the broom head, and there fixed, obviously it would impede thesweeping operation.

So far, a conventional brush broom has been considered. The invention,however, which consists essentially of a unit comprising a scraperelement, an adjustable element and a pole or handle, is also applicableto a brush (head and bristles) which has been produced particularly toaccommodate it. That is to say (in reverse order) the invention may beproduced with the brush head inclusive, .or the aforesaid unit mayinclude a kit for adaptation to a conventional brush head from which thepole or handle has been removed, the only difierence being in the brushhead by itself considered.

The principal object of the invention, therefore, is to provide, in acombined brush broom and scraper, a. scraper which is protractable andretractable as conditions demand as aforesaid.

Another important object is to provide a unit consisting of a scraperelement, an adjustable element and a 2,742,658 Patented? Apr. 24,v 195.6

handle which may be applied either. to a special brush (head 'andbristles) or to aconventionalbrush from which the conventionalhandle hasbeen removed and inserted in-said unit.

A further importantobject isto provide a device of the characterspecified which will. be simple, durable and inexpensive to produceandvto purchase.

These together with other objects which may later appear may be attainedby the structure hereinafter defined, specifically claimed, andillustrated inthe accompanying drawing in which:

Figure 1 is a top view ofa broom and scraper, showing the pole or.handle brokenxaway, asit is-also shown in allthe figures wherein itappears;

Figure 2 is a side elevation;

Figure 3 is an enlarged front sectional elevation taken on the line 2-2of Figure 2;

Figure 4 is an enlargedtdetailed perspective view. of the unitcomprising a certain slide bar, scraper element and pole socket;

Figure. 5 is an enlarged. end view, in median crosssection,.ofaconventional .brush head, showing the. U-bolt employed as means to adaptthe said unit to such a head;

Figure 6 is a detailed perspective view of a certain keeper or clampmember.

Like reference characters refer to like parts in all the figures.

Referring now to the drawing, a brush or broom head is indicated by H,the bristles by B and the pole by P.

The special brush head, that is the head which is preferably suppliedwhen the combination broom and scraper is sold as a unit, is shown inFigures 1, 2 and 3. In the upper face of this head, midway between theends of the head and running clear across transversely, is a pair ofgrooves 10, see Figure 3, which are preferably about half the depth of,and conform to, a pair of rods later to be described.

The conventional head, that is the head which has been previously soldand to which the unit including the scraper is to be subsequentlyapplied, is shown in Figure 5. In this head there are two threaded screwsockets 12 formed at approximately right angles to each other and atangles of approximately 45 to at least the face of the head having thebristles. These sockets commence in the upper face of the head andmerge, thus constituting a broad V-shaped passage opening twice at thetop and again at the bot-tom of the head. A U-bolt 13 is inserted inthis V-shaped passage from the bottom so that the threaded end portionsof its shanks extend Well above the upper face of the brush head, itsweb engaging the apexial portion of the passage.

Since the proportions of these brush heads vary, preferably the U-bolt13 is formed in two equal portions which are pivoted together at 34. Itis understood that the pole or handle which previously has been screwedinto one or the other of the sockets 12 has been removed.

In its present embodiment the unit, which has been previously mentioned,consists of a slotted slide bar. On one end of this bar is the scraperblade 14, and on the opposite end a threaded socket 15 for the pole P.The blade lies at an angle such that when the broom is turned upsidedown will position it at the proper scraping angle when the pole isroughly 45 from horizontal, the approximate inclination the latterassumes when the broom is in bristles-to-floor position. That is to say,the working angle of the pole is roughly the same whether the brush orthe scraper is at work.

Conveniently the slotted bar may take the form, as here shown, of a pairof spaced parallel rods 16. In the form illustrated in Figures 1, 2 and3, the rods 16 preferably lie half in and half out in the grooves 10,such arrangement preventing the rods (the slotted bar) from turning,

or pivoting, on the broom head H. Spanning the slot 17 is a laterallyflanged keeper or clamp member 18, the rounded and downwardly directedflanges 19 of which embrace the bar and prevent the keeper fromtwisting.

A wing-head bolt 20 passes through a centre hole in the keeper 18,thencethrough the'slot 17, finally being received in a socket 21, whichis introduced with a tight fit into the head H from the bottom. Thesocket 17 has a flange or base 22 which prevents it from moving out ofplace when the bolt 20 is screwed into it. Thus by loosening the bolt20the bar 16 may be slid forward or backward and be temporarily fixed inits shifted position by re-tightening-the bolt.

The keeper is provided also with two additional holes or passages 23located one on each side of the center hole. These holes 23 are not usedin the form of assembly according to Figures 1, 2 and 3, but in the formaccording to Figure 5 the shanks of the U-bolt 13 pass through theseadditional holes, thereupon to receive wing nuts 24. In the latter formthe center hole of the keeper is not used. The holes 23 are elongaterather than round in order to provide a tolerance for varying shankspans of the U-bolt 13. Thus the keeper is universal to both types ofbrush head.

In the latter form of the invention, obviously the original pole may beused, unscrewing it from one of the sockets 12 and screwing it into thesocket 15 being all that is necessary for that particular step of theconversion.

I claim:

1. In a combined push broom and scraper, a brush head characterized by asubstantially V-shaped passage, a slotted slidable bar disposed acrossthe upper face of said head, a scraper blade on one end of said bar, apole socket inclined upwardly on the opposite end of said bar, a U-boltdisposed in said passage with the threaded end portions of its shanksextending through the slot in said bar, and nuts on said end portionsfor loosening and tightening said bar against said face of said headwhereby said head may be selectively shifted along said bar."-

2. The device according to claim 1 in which a clamp plate is interposedbetween said bar and said nuts.

3. The device according to claim 1 in which the U-bolt comprises twoidentical portions pivotally connected.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS LandesSept. 22, 1874

